The Real Deal New York

Queens homeowner obsessed with Christmas decorations lands $50K prize

Retired New York City firefighter Kevin Lynch, owner of a Whitestone, Queens home that is unmissable during the holiday season, has a little help this year paying his undoubtedly pricey electric bill.

Lynch picked up a $50,000 cash prize on ABC’s the Great Christmas Light Fight, where his luminous display beat out three other finalists from across the country. But he still won’t reveal just how much the decor, which he told Curbed normally takes him six or seven weeks to assemble, is raking in for ConEd.

“I’ll gladly get it and show it to you. If I get it, you’ll have to pay it,” he stipulated to Curbed when asked to share the details of the bill.

Lynch’s yuletide extravaganza kicks off with plastic snowmen, reindeer and “wooden” soldiers in the front yard, and leads up to cases full of tufted animals and porcelain figures alongside the steps of his two-story home. And then of course there are the hundreds of thousands of lights — red, green and blue, some patterned — that adorn virtually every corner of the house. The roof tops it all off, with “Peace on Earth” strung together with red lights, a 15-foot-long train, a Ferris wheel, seesaws and swing sets.

The display is so massive that two years ago, two pilots told Lynch that they saw the house as they were landing at LaGuardia Airport. [Curbed] — Julie Strickland